With most of the dust "settled" from a rather stagnant free-agent market and transaction wire, let's take a look at Boston's options when it comes to bracing itself for the Seattle Kraken's upcoming expansion draft in June 2021. We will be running these projections throughout this offseason and the upcoming 2021 campaign, as a lot can change over the course of a year through additional roster transactions and much more.
In case you need a refresher on some of the key rules and guidelines in place for the Kraken as they look to capitalize on an NHL landscape dominated by a flat cap ceiling in 2020 and beyond:
Seattle will select one player from each team — except for the Golden Knights — for a total of 30 (14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies). The team must choose a minimum of 20 players under contract for the 2021-22 regular season and those with an aggregate Expansion Draft value that is between 60-100% of the prior season’s upper limit for the salary cap. Seattle also cannot buy out players that it selected in the Expansion Draft earlier than the summer following its first season.
- The teams forced to participate in the Expansion Draft will have two options when it comes to protecting players:
- Protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie
- Protect eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goalie
- All players with no-movement clauses at the time of the draft, and who decline to waive those clauses, must be protected by their teams and will be counted toward their team’s applicable protection limits.
- All first- and second-year professional players, and all unsigned draft choices, will be exempt from selection (and will not be counted toward protection limits.)
- All NHL teams must meet the following minimum requirements regarding players exposed for selection in the draft:
- One defenseman who is a) under contract in 2021-22 and b) played in at least 40 NHL games the prior season or played in at least 70 NHL games in the prior two seasons.
- Two forwards who are a) under contract in 2021-22 and b) played at least 40 NHL games the prior season or played in at least 70 NHL games in the prior two seasons.
- One goalie who is under contract in 2021-22 or will be a restricted free agent at the end of his current contract immediately prior to 2021-22. If a team elects to make a restricted free agent goalie available to meet this requirement, that goalie must have received his qualifying offer prior to the submission of the team’s protected list.
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- Good on the Bruins for organizing their 10th annual Halloween visit for children in Boston-area hospitals earlier this week — even if the ongoing pandemic prompted them to conduct the get-together over Zoom. The theme for this visit was Sesame Street, with Patrice Bergeron (Elmo), Tuukka Rask (Oscar the Grouch), Brandon Carlo (Cookie Monster), Sean Kuraly (Bert), Charlie Coyle (Ernie), John Moore (The Count), Jeremy Lauzon (Super Grover), and Anders Bjork (Abby Cadabby) all taking part in the festivities. Bjork took home the fan vote for best costume, while Bergeron might have stolen the show with a flawless Elmo impression.
- The Arizona Coyotes made the right call and renounced their rights to 2020 fourth-round draft pick Mitchell Miller earlier this week after a story from AZCentral shed light on how Miller was convicted of bullying an African American classmate with developmental disabilities back in junior high school. The details in that story, all heart-wrenching and horrific, not only document Miller's heinous treatment (with little in terms of remorse), but also single out the Coyotes for selecting Miller in the first place — given that information about Miller's conviction was available and numerous other teams reportedly didn't even include him on their draft boards. So yes, Arizona made the right call on cutting ties with this bully (I'm putting it mildly there), but they deserve no credit for finally taking action (following waves of warranted criticism) after drafting him in the first place.